Page 8 of Tyr

“I’m fine, Papa. Just checking.”She let the connection drop.

Part of her hardly believed she was actually in the Underworld because her father had always made such a point of keeping her away. He’d always insisted she stay on Earth. But the minute he’d discovered her in Anton’s closet, he’d grabbed her and run straight to his natural home.

It wasn’t that the realm was so different from Earth as much as it was… the smell, the feel… the beings. On Earth, she’d run into the occasional supernatural, but in the Underworld, everyone was supernatural as far as she could tell. She couldn’t decipher all the different species, but for sure, every species had a different wave pattern to them.

She let her shields dip for a moment to discern what Tyr thought, but his mind remained blank. She lingered for amoment, confused. How could his mind be completely blank when before she’d been able to read everything?

Tyr’s grip tightened on the steering wheel, and she threw her shield back up. Her cheeks heated. He purposely cleared his mind because he knew she read him. But… how? No one had ever been able to tell before unless she’d wanted them to.

They headed down a long driveway in silence thicker than when they’d left the café. Finally, the drive ended at an expansive white mansion. Huge. Like something she would have seen in Beverly Hills that a movie star would own.

Celeste’s mouth tried to fall open at the sight, but it shot with lightning pain, and she grabbed the side of her face and whimpered.

The whole front of the house sported a huge bay of enormous two-story windows tinted from inside. An expansive lawn devoid of any bushes, flowers, or trees stretched to the side of the house. She assumed it was so they saw anyone trying to sneak up on the house. As she scanned the roofline, she spotted dozens of cameras swiveling back and forth.

Damn.She doubted even the White House had that many cameras.

Tyr glanced at her and back to the windshield.

Just what did Tyr do for a job? Her father had money, but he was in no way as rich as Tyr appeared to be. But then again, she didn’t think her father was as old as Tyr. He was a god, after all. Which meant he’d been gathering wealth for what? A thousand years? Longer?

Holy hamburgers! Was Tyr a thousand years old?

Tyr pulled the vehicle around the side of the house and pushed a button on his key ring to open a huge garage door tall enough for an airplane. They waited in silence for the door to roll up.

Tyr pulled his Jeep into an empty spot between an even larger SUV and a sleek sports car of some kind.

How had he gotten those into the Underworld? It wasn’t like they would have fit through the portal she’d come through. There was so much she didn’t yet understand about the Underworld and its connection to the Earth realm. She wondered if her dad would let her stay in the Underworld with him now.

The garage door shut behind them with a soft bang, and they sat for a moment. Around the garage, dozens of vehicles sat pristine and ready for their turn on the road. What the hell did they need so many for? Celeste had never understood men and their obsessions with cars. Guess even gods weren’t immune to the fascination.

Tyr peeled his hands from the steering wheel. “Let’s get you somewhere comfortable where you can rest.”

He slid out the driver’s side door, and before she got out, he rounded the vehicle and pulled open her door for her. He stood like a mountain blocking her way and then lifted his hand. She flinched involuntarily, and he stopped.

“I will not hurt you. I understand you’re frightened and you do not know me. But I promise you that even if your father weren’t a friend of mine, there is nothing, nothing that would make me strike you. Even if you struck me first. I would never hurt you, Celeste.”

The sincerity in his voice struck Celeste as genuine. In her twenty-four years of life, she’d learned to read people. Not just with her gift but without it as well. She’d learned about body language, micro-expressions, voice inflections, and more. And everything from his body language to his relaxed speech patterns rang true.

Celeste nodded, but didn’t take his hand when he offered it to her again. She dropped the extra-long distance to theground, and a whirlwind of pain coursed up her side and across her chest. Her knees weakened, and her vision blurred as pain rocked her entire body. Tyr grabbed her gently around the waist, holding her up. She wanted to push him off but didn’t have the strength to protest. She hadn’t slept in almost thirty-six hours and hadn’t eaten in… who knew how long. The pain all over her body seemed to increase with every passing moment.

“Can you walk?”

She nodded, catching her breath. Tyr waited and then slid his hand from her waist when she straightened. She took a step, but once she let go of the car, she crumbled.

Tyr tried to soften the drop by reaching for her, but he gripped her upper arm where Anton had stuck her, and she cried out.

“I’m sorry. I… I’m sorry.”

She cradled her arm against herself. A cold sweat broke out over her skin.

“I’m going to have to carry you. I am sorry to do it, especially after everything you’ve been through, but you’ll be much more comfortable in a bed and not on the garage floor. And I want to make this trip as short as possible. Okay?”

He waited for her to respond.

She was unable to do anything more than nod.

She hadn’t taken time to log every injury, so she forgot about them individually. They were all just a collective of agony. And though they would begin to heal once she rested and eaten, in that moment, she couldn’t take anymore, so she let Tyr lift her.

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